Emerging Fervour

A few weeks back, I did a piece on some talented t-shirt designers I came across. One of them, Cole Blotcky has agreed to give me some much needed answers to a couple of questions I had for him.

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Sara: I’ve introduced you as some t-shirt designer – what else is behind the the pretty face?

Cole: Wish I could say I live some extravagant life. I really don’t though. I’m just a normal college drop out that spends his day drawing in his underwear until it’s socially acceptable to start drinking… and I usually start much before that. My whole life even since highschool has revolved around the t-shirt industry. My cousin hooked me up with a clothing line  based in Jacksonville, Florida when I was a freshman in highschool. It was my first design job and I was way in over my head. What kind of jerkoff hires a 15 year old kid to be responsible for designing his shirts? Regardless, I had about 5 or 6 really solid designs printed by them and it was  the most rewarding thing in the world to see your art on the backs of kids. Skip ahead like 5 years to me dropping out of college to be a full-time merch boy for a band called The Junior Varsity.

Probably my golden years. Sleeping with groupies and networking with all the bands I was meeting. I blame whatever trivial success I have had on deciding to do this. I have had my hand on every side of the t-shirt. From printing them in Florida working with Jimmy at printmytees.com to selling them on tour for years, and now strictly designing them fulltime back in my hometown of Normal, IL.

My life now is a lot different. I don’t know what else to say. I am a 23 year old alcaholic who drinks in his front lawn everynight with my asshole roommates. We break shit. Get in fights. Throw punk rock shows in our kitchen. Smoke cigarettes. Get in trouble. Grow ridiculous facial hair.

And then I try to design some shirts when I’m not too fucking hung over.

My life is Thin Lizzy on blast. A bottle of Old Style in one hand and cigarette in the other.

Sara: So do you have your first shirt designs to show us or are they a bit shit?

Cole: Oh man. Unfortunately I have some. This Aiden design was the first design I ever got paid for up front. I was touring with Aiden for 6 weeks and Will (the lead singer) reached into his pocket the last day of tour and handed me 23 bucks to design them something when I got home. I was like 17 or 18 so I was pretty stoked. The shirt I designed needed up selling like crazy. To this day I still love designing for Aiden and I usually produce my best work for them.

Sara: Nice, creative…where do you get your inspiration?

Cole: I actually have been working really hard on this. I started out doing what everyone else was doing just because I was a stupid fucking kid trying to break into the industry professionally. I don’t think I really ever developed my own style until I stopped giving a shit and started doing whatever the fuck I wanted. Seems like the more pot leaves and pentagrams I put into my work the better it goes over.

I love designing for bands who don’t give a shit. Bands that think cum dripping out of a hairy pussy is a great idea and not obscene. I love working with these mother fuckers but they are all so fucking cheap and the only thing that pays the bills and keeps my fridge stocked with beer is working with bands my little sister would listen to. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I listen to about 3% of the bands that I actually design for. I actually don’t listen to most of the bands on purpose because if I hate their music it will probably affect my work. When I get the chance to work with a band I actually enjoy or have gotten wasted with on tour it usually works out better and I knock something out of the park. But again, I hate the music scene… the music scene that pays my fucking bills. It’s humorous. So in short I guess my inspiration is doing my own thing as much as I can. Incorporating things most feel is too obscene for a shirt. Trying to hide cock and balls in a design is a bit of a hobby as well. I’ll probably get in trouble for saying that. Fuck it.

To check out more of Cole’s work you can visit

http://www.byelinedesign.com
http://colemadethis.com
http://www.byelineclothing.com